IN THE WAKE OF THE NEWS.

`Game Of Century' Merely Produces A Sign Of The Times

ORLANDO — It was supposed to be the defining game of this college football season. Notre Dame-Florida State should have been fueled by all the proper stuff-revenge, rankings, respect.

It will have to settle for regret.

What was to be the great rematch became instead a great shrug. One of the chronic T-shirts said it best: "Almost Game of the Century II," with the "Almost" scrawled in as a sarcastic afterthought.

It was not even game of the day. And when Florida State coach Bobby Bowden insisted it was just great to beat Notre Dame, he not only was lip-synching coaches from lesser places like Boston College and Brigham Young, but he was a year late in his sentiment.

Beating Notre Dame is no longer as great as it is trite.

Everything that happened in the Citrus Bowl Saturday must be shaded by what might have been.

Quarterback Ron Powlus might have been the wonder son of Irish ghosts, but what he was was a feeble and uncertain performer, so wobbly at the end that he fell without being tackled.

The Notre Dame running game-a kind of galoot offense when it is rumbling at its best-might have proved it could work against someone other than Navy or Northwestern, but it was not Lee Becton and Ray Zellars who were turning heads and shedding tacklers but the interchangeable Warrick Dunn and Rock Preston of Florida State.

And Florida State might have reinserted itself into the national championship picture if it could manage its usual run-it-up, hang-it-all-out rout over inferior opponents, this one being decidedly inferior but nonetheless named Notre Dame.

Instead, the Seminoles wandered between the 20-yard lines as if they were looking for a place to put down their picnic blanket but treated the end zone as if they would be trespassing.

"We kind of thought that was fixin' to come back and haunt us," Bowden said.

It was a result without satisfaction or significance for either side, leaving Florida State too far from Nebraska and Notre Dame too far from his own reputation.

"If things go like they are supposed to," said Bowden, "Florida State won't make it (to the national title).

"But this time last year Notre Dame was bound to play somebody for the national championship, and one week later we're back in it. We're going to hang in there and try to keep winning. Who knows what will happen?"

The same question can be asked of Notre Dame, which is very seriously facing a losing season. Next week's opponent, Air Force, is every bit as capable as Brigham Young was, and the final stop in Los Angeles against Southern Cal gets more traditional the worse each team becomes.

"I'll have to look at the films to see where we are," said Lou Holtz.

May I save him the trouble?

Look at the offensive line. Youth is not an alibi nine games into the season. Look at the receivers, which is more than Powlus seems to do. Powlus is playing the position with wince first, throw it out of bounds desperation.

Look at the defense, trying to mask its inadequacies by outguessing instead of out-hitting the other team.

"They used the blitz to stop our running game," said Bowden, impressed at the notion.

Florida State responded by gaining a mere 332 yards on the ground, with Preston getting 165 and Dunn 163.

When the season began, the defense was deficient, and the Notre Dame offense has caught up with it.

Notre Dame needs to get faster. It plays at a different speed than Florida State or Miami, even slower than Nebraska, the old Clydesdale of the Plains.

The first thing Holtz did when he got to Notre Dame was to add speed. He needs to do it again.

Nothing much is wrong with Notre Dame that can't be fixed by recruiting, or as Bowden used to say of Oklahoma, by reloading.